Butler Basketball Preseason Profile: Alex Barlow

It was an off-season of drastic change for Butler basketball: New coach, new conference, six new freshmen -- even a new radio announcer. What does the 2013-14 campaign hold for a program that has enjoyed eight consecutive 20-win seasons?

Challenges aplenty.

As the Bulldogs prepare for their Nov. 9 regular season opener against Lamar, we take a look, player-by-player, at the individuals that will make up the roster and what we can expect from them on the court this season.

ALEX BARLOW

KEY FACTS

+ 5-11, 187-pound junior guard from Moeller High School in Springboro, Ohio

+ Started 23 games last season and led the team in steals with 42. Averaged 2.3 points and 2.7 rebounds a game.

+ Sunk a game-winning floater with :02 seconds left to lift Butler to an 88-86 overtime victory over top-ranked Indiana in December of last season, a shot that was a finalist for Geico Play of the Year.

SAME OLD STORY? Alex Barlow has spent his college career as the underdog. He was the walk-on playing basketball at Butler instead of his best sport in high school -- baseball. He was the slow, undersized guard who barely cracked the rotation as a freshman, scoring just six points all year.

Then his sophomore year happened, when a defensive tenacity that wouldn't die yielded the starting point guard spot. When 23 starts happened. When he led the team in steals happened.

When this happened.

It goes without saying Alex Barlow is no stranger to overcoming long odds.

And he's aware the challenges awaiting this team this season. The naysayers have piled on. No one believes in Butler anymore, and that's just fine with Barlow.

"Another log in the fire," he says.

At Big East Media Day in New York City earlier this month, the Bullodgs were picked to finish ninth in the Big East by the conference coaches. Barlow's response?

"You don't want to finish eighth, you don't want to finish ninth," he said. "Butler has a history of proving people wrong and proving the doubters wrong. We're going to be the best team we can be, and hopefully that's not the eighth best team in the Big East."

BUT WILL HE START? It's hard to imagine Barlow not getting the starting nod at point guard to begin the season. He holds significant advantages over his two competitors -- junior Jackson Aldridge and freshman Rene Castro -- in both experience and defensive smarts. In many ways, Barlow is the player that best fits the Butler mold (also known as the Brandon Miller mold) in that, night-in and night-out, he puts defense first.

He also puts the team first, and says it doesn't matter to him all that much if he's starting or coming off the bench.

"Honestly, I don't really look at that or think about that," he says. "The coaches are going to make that decision. That's the reason they get paid.

"If I’m starting that’s good, if I’m not starting that’s all well and good too. I’m going to do whatever I can to help the team. I can come off the bench. It doesn’t really matter if you start or come in four minutes in our eight minutes. You still have to do your job."

But Barlow began the team's intrasquad scrimmage with the starters, and started Tuesday's exhibition game against Nova Southeastern. Neither Castro or Aldridge (even though Aldridge had a nice sequence, draining back-to-back 3-pointers at one point in the first half) have done enough to unseat Barlow in the starting line-up.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN IN THE LONG RUN? I still wonder, for everything Barlow brings to the table, if Castro is the best long-term option at point guard. He has the ability to create more offense -- like setting up shooters Kellen Dunham or Elijah Brown -- and that is something that will become vital for Butler come Big East play.

But, as we've learned, don't discount Barlow's ability to surprise. He didn't necessarily do anything to lose the starting job in Friday's scrimmage or Tuesday's exhibition opener, but then again, he didn't do anything to cement it. While Castro may present a higher upside, Barlow provides a steadier two-way presence.

No, he's not going to score 15 points a game, but he's not going to let his man score 15, either. He's also not going to make the sort of freshman mistakes Castro likely will.